We did a lot research when booking our vendors. The overall plan of our wedding was based off of a painting, "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georgese Seurat. Wanted everything to feel like an afternoon in the park. Tiffany blue was the color of the bridesmaids' dresses, with pink and white flowers.
Dress: Jaehee Bridal,
Englewood, NJ
(Marielle by Rivini)
Bojana was my assistant and she had great taste – she pulled
many dresses for me that fit a basic description of what I liked, and had many
thoughtful ideas for changes or personal touches –belts, hairpieces, veils, etc.
We ultimately found my dress – Marielle by Rivini. Dress arrived when they said
it would, fittings were easy (and it turns out I didn’t need any alterations at
all except the addition of a bustle.) I ordered my shoes and fascinator through
Jaehee as well. It was nice to try them all on together at the same time.
Shoes: Jaehee Bridal,
Englewood, NJ
I tried them on while trying on my dress and liked them.
Easy decision! They were comfortable and pretty.
Bridesmaid Dresses: Pearl’s
Place
http://www.pearlsplace.com/
I visited a local store, and found a dress I liked after
viewing it online. (Bill Levkoff 676). I contacted Pearl’s Place – they had the
gown available for a little more than 20% less than the local stores, so this
seemed like a no brainer. I emailed all of my bridesmaids (7 of them) and gave
them the information on the dress (style number, color, size chart) as well as
3 stores that sold it and let them decide. 6 ordered from Pearl’s Place, while the
other 1 was trying to get pregnant and did not know what size she would
ultimately need, so she ordered it local.
After ordering, they arrived in the time they said they
would (about 3 months) and my bridesmaids were very happy to have been given
the choice of where to buy and the discount. Before ordering dresses, I would
suggest giving Pearl’s Place a call and seeing if they sell the dress that you
like – they are very helpful.
Flower Girl Dresses:
PinkPrincess.com
Another very positive experience. Dresses are great quality
at an affordable price (I think they were $45, plus free shipping both ways)
They also have social media coupons and codes, so be sure to check that out as
well before ordering. Dresses are
adorable: embroidered taffeta with faux flowers at the waist and a sash. Very
happy with this choice! Had 5 flower girls and they all looked adorable. Dresses
were available in a wide range of sizes – youngest was 8 months, oldest was 9.
Invitations:
TheAmericanWedding.com
I fell in love with the concept of a high end, letterpress
invite and searched for styles that I liked and could afford. I found the
letterpress section on TheAmericanWedding.com to be exactly what I liked! Our
invites were on heavy Crane 100% cotton paper with turquoise ink. Simple,
classic and very pretty.
Photographer: North
Island Photography, Setauket, NY
http://www.niphotoinc.com/
https://www.facebook.com/NorthIslandPhoto
Michael Rosengard of North Island Photography is a
photographer I always knew I wanted to hire – my sister and husband’s sister
have both used him for photographing their children. They are located on Long Island and not NJ,
so they had to travel. The package we purchased includes all rights
and full quality files to all photos (approximately 1500+), 100 thank you
cards, album for us, 2 parent albums, 1000 art-quality prints, 5 5x8 and 5 8x10
art quality prints. Engagement session was also included.
Our engagement session was so much fun and the pictures were
beautiful. They are very artistic, with a slightly vintage feel. Beyond being
artistic, they are just examples of GOOD photographer- the lighting in every
shot is great (there are no shadows across faces and bad lighting, which I have
seen in the work of so many other photographers), the poses look relaxed and he
is really attentive to details (the way your hands are placed, how feet look,
etc.) He really just has a great eye and gets really nice shots.
Our wedding photos are just as gorgeous. Within 2 days, there were 200 images on his
facebook page for us to view. We got our
high-res CD of every image and all of our proofs 2 weeks after our
wedding. Really impressive turnaround
time with beautiful, high-quality images.
Videographer: John
Jae Videography
http://www.johnjaevideography.com/
I found John Jae Videography (Daniel) through the Knot
bulletin boards. After seeing his work
and reading many good reviews, I booked him (without meeting him – after a few
emails back and forth I could tell he would be easy to work with and was happy
to just book him) Also, added in all raw footage for a reasonable price, which
was important to me.
He arrived on time, was very pleasant to work with, and I’m
very much looking forward to seeing our video.
Florist: Beverly
Swisher, The Garden Party, Clifton NJ
973-365-0295
Beverly has been our family’s florist for over a decade, so
it was no surprise I would be using her for our wedding. Reasonably priced,
beautiful arrangements. All of her arrangements were attractive and reasonably
priced. Our flowers were hydrangeas, gerbera daisies, and roses with others
mixed in (don’t know the names.) Under
$2000 for my bouquet, 2 MOH bouquets, 5 bridesmaid bouquets, groom bout, 7 GM
bouts, 2 ring bearer bouts, 5 corsages for family members, flower girl flowers,
altar large arrangement, head table arrangement, 20 table centerpieces, dozen red roses for anniversary dance couple
who was married the longest, toss bouquet (ended up not doing a toss, but still
had the flowers out), and pew bows (large church). I think that is everything. All bouquets were
large and full – so her prices were really good for the quality and
fullness/size of each piece. Included delivery and set up of both church and
reception venue. Very highly recommend her for future work.
Cocktail Hour
Musician: Dan Kleinrock
http://www.dkunplugged.com/
https://www.facebook.com/dankleinrock?fref=ts
Dan is an acoustic guitarist and is really talented. He
played our cocktail hour and we received a lot of compliments about him. Really
nice guy as well. He was awesome!
Reception DJ: Jim
McBride, JAM
We attended a wedding in July 2012 where Jim was the DJ, and
my family really liked his style. He was not obnoxious, in your face, or too
loud – played great songs that you can dance to and has a great personality. He
is affordable and was easy to get in contact with leading up to the event. (ETA: Dance floor was always packed. This was NOT important to me in planning - I know some brides want a packed dance floor as a goal, but it just so happened he played great songs to keep people dancing. Awesome!)
Photo Booth: Thom
McCartney, Local NJ Photo Booths
http://localnjphotobooths.com/
I did a lot of research on photo booth companies in the
northern NJ area, and found this was the best price with high quality photos.
Thom is very responsive to emails and inquiries (and I had a lot – I asked
about printing multiple copies of the same photo, props, booth size, etc) I
viewed many albums on their facebook page of photo booth pictures, and I felt
all were “centered” well and nice. Affordable as well. Transferred all photos
taken from the booth throughout our event on our thumbdrive at the end, which
was awesome. We also had a custom guest book with a custom photo cover, where
guests placed their photos along with messages. Many guests raved about it, and
the pictures were really cool.
Event Artist: Joan
Zylkin, The Event Painter
http://www.theeventpainter.com/
I had learned about event painters a few years back, and
Joan was honestly one of the first vendors I hired as soon as a date was
chosen. This is not an inexpensive
touch, but the quality of her work and the resulting canvas is worth every
penny. She is responsive to all emails and very friendly.
We met at the venue the day before the wedding to discuss
the angles of the rooms in the painting as well as who should be featured. The painting itself is amazing. You can
exactly tell who is who and the quality of her work is stunning. She works in
oils, and we now have a custom painting in our home.
Church: Presbyterian
Church of Upper Montclair
I am a member of the Presbyterian Church of Upper Montclair
in Montclair, NJ, so this was an obvious choice. I believe only members can be
married, but it is a beautiful church and I have been imagining getting married
here since I was a child. Pastor Horn is an amazing person as well, all around.
I don’t have enough nice things to say about this church and the church family.
Our meetings leading up to the wedding with Pastor Horn were
fun and informative. His message was very kind and thoughtful, and our entire
planning process with the church was nice.
Great congregation as well.